Hartford Defeats Stony Brook In America East Men's Basketball

Mark Nwakamma scored 23 points Saturday as the Hartford men’s basketball team picked up a signature victory, 60-55 over first-place Stony Brook before a crowd of 1,398 at Chase Family Arena.

The Hawks (14-10, 7-4 America East) snapped a nine-game losing streak to Stony Brook (17-6, 8-2) and hadn’t won a game in the series since Feb. 14, 2008. Hartford leads the all-time series, 14-13.

Stony Brook had won nine of its last 10 games, including a 73-59 victory over Hartford Jan. 12 on Long Island. The Seawolves had won 26 of their last 30 conference games.

Cooper had 11 points and Sikma nine for Hartford. Jameel Warney had 21 points and nine rebounds for Stony Brook.

Hartford trailed 32-27 at halftime, and then 39-30 early in the second half. But John Peterson, Nate Sikma and Evan Cooper hit consecutive three-pointers to tie it, and Nwakamma gave the Hawks the lead with a jump shot.

Later, Wes Cole’s three-pointer made it 44-40, but Stony Brook re-took the lead with five consecutive points. Hartford scored the next eight, taking the lead for good on a Nwakamma-put-back. Hartford’s 53-45 lead was trimmed to two, but Sikma made a three-pointer for some breathing room with 2:15 left, and Nwakamma followed with a powerful dunk that pushed the lead to 58-51 with 1:30 left.